Overview

The Youth Ministry and Leadership Collection (20 vols.) provides ideas, tips, and suggestions for leading today’s youth. Investing in your role as a caregiver will multiply your impact in the lives of teenagers, free you to know that God will strengthen you during difficult ministry moments, and encourage you to see yourself as someone who can make a lasting difference. You’ll find yourself regularly returning to this collection for inspiration, ideas, and insights as you progress through your ministry journey.

With Logos Bible Software, this collection is completely searchable. Scripture passages appear on mouseover and link to your favorite Bible translation in your library. This makes these texts more powerful and easier to access than ever before for scholarly work or personal study. With Logos’ advanced search features, you can perform powerful searches by topic or Scripture reference—finding, for example, every mention of “communication” or “mentor.”

Key Features

Explores major themes connected to youth ministry

Discusses the rewards of authentic relational ministry

Provides 10 steps for launching a healthy, effective small group ministry

99 Thoughts about Junior High Ministry: Tips, Tricks, & Tidbits for Working with Young Teenagers

What does it take to succeed in junior high ministry? A limitless string of ideas for dynamic, energetic games? An attention span only slightly longer than your students? A high tolerance level for intense body odors?

After more than two decades of working with junior highers, Kurt Johnston has discovered it takes more than that. Johnston has compiled 99 thoughts, tips, tricks, and tidbits that will encourage, equip, and excite you on your journey—whether you’re a full-time youth pastor or a volunteer.

Here’s the simple truth: whenever junior highers are being connected to caring adults who love Jesus, good ministry will be the result. The rest is icing on the cake.

Kurt Johnston has been in youth ministry since 1988 and currently leads the student ministry team at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California.

99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders: Tips for Rookies & Veterans on Leading Youth Ministry Small Groups

Lives are changed. Decisions are made. Jokes are shared. Lifelong friendships are formed.

If you’re a small group leader, you probably ask yourself lots of questions. Am I making a difference? Am I wisely investing my time, energy, and resources? How can I maximize my impact in these kids’ lives?

Find the answers you’re looking for in 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders. Like other books in our 99 Thoughts series, Joshua Griffin’s latest book delivers insights, tips, and veteran advice for small group leaders. When put into play, these bite-size, consumable pieces of wisdom can help leaders “knock it out of the park,” setting them up to win.

If you’re a small group leader, you’ll come back to this book again and again for encouragement, inspiration, and direction. And if you’re a leader of leaders, you’ll want to put this book into the hands of every small group leader—an investment in their lives and the lives of students in your youth ministry.

Joshua Griffin is the high school pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

Doug Fields has been a pastor to teenagers and a mentor to youth workers for over 30 years. He’s the author of more than 50 youth ministry books.

Being a youth worker means being more than a babysitter or a chaperone. It means walking with teenagers through the exciting and challenging times, the highs and lows of the teenage years. Approaching ministry with this mindset means you will find yourself in a wide range of significant moments in students’ lives. Are you prepared?

Veteran youth worker Matt Murphy and seminary professor Brad Widstrom have teamed up to write 99 Thoughts on Caring for Your Youth Group and offer a wealth of practical tools, tips, and techniques to help you become a youth worker who is equipped to care for teenagers from the coffee house to the crisis moments.

Matt Murphy is an associate professor of youth ministry at Denver Seminary. He has been involved in the lives of teenagers for over 30 years as pastor, educator, mentor, and friend.

Brad Widstrom is a 14-year veteran of youth ministry across multiple contexts. He graduated from Denver Seminary and is a member of the National Association of Christian Social Workers and the American Association of Christian Counselors.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. We’re also pretty sure it takes a team to build a healthy youth ministry.

In 99 Thoughts on Leading Volunteers, Kent Julian will help you engage, lead, develop, and keep volunteers. As a veteran youth worker, sports coach, and organizational leader, Kent knows what it takes to build a focused, effective team. He understands the power of bringing together volunteers and guiding them toward a meaningful goal.

Why wouldn’t you want to share the joys of ministry with a team of volunteers? Why wouldn’t you want to help others discover their passions, gifts, and abilities—and then use them to make a difference in teenagers’ lives? Why wouldn’t you want to do life and ministry with a group of people committed to a common cause of seeing students lead Jesus-centered lives?

Join Kent for this passionate exploration of how you can best lead your volunteers—it’s a journey that’s sure to challenge and transform you, your ministry, and your students.

Kent Julian is the founder of Live It Forward, LLC and a motivational speaker heard by thousands of students and educators across America each year. Before starting this business, Kent was a youth pastor for 15 years and then served as the national director of Alliance Youth, an organization that serves over 2,000 churches nationwide.

99 Thoughts on Leading Well: Insights for Leaders in Youth Ministry

Good leaders are always looking for ways to become better leaders. They attend seminars, workshops, and conferences. Their bookshelves are filled with words written by successful leaders.

Put simply, they’re hungry.

Get the inside scoop on leadership with 99 Thoughts on Leading Well and its healthy blend of practical training and insights on personal growth for leaders in youth ministry. Drawing on his years of experience as a staff pastor, Reza Zadeh delivers a mix of challenging, inspiring, and thought-provoking ideas to help you become a more effective leader.

If you’re the point person in your youth ministry or organization, this book will equip you for leading others, guide you in building a healthy team, and assist you in developing into a stronger leader. And if you’re a part of the team, this book will give you tools for helping your team reach the next level of success and impact.

Reza Zadeh is the pastor to young adults at Timberline Church in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

A Beautiful Mess: What’s Right with Youth Ministry

When you think about the state of youth ministry today, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you cheer or fear? Is the glass half full or half empty? In this honest examination, veteran youth worker Mark Oestreicher offers a fresh perspective on what’s working in youth ministry today and discovers that perhaps things aren’t as broken as some of us might have thought.

Theologically and anecdotally, we can uncover plenty of encouraging signs in the realm of youth ministry, according to Oestreicher, whose youth ministry experience includes time as an in-the-trenches youth worker and as a publisher of youth ministry books and resources. A Beautiful Mess features insights on the issues and opportunities facing youth workers, including the trend toward longevity in ministry, the power of smaller churches, the work of the Holy Spirit, the need for integration instead of isolation, and the centrality of faith and humility.

This book will help you experience the freedom of your calling, rather than the stress of expectations. You’ll discover an abundance of reasons to remain optimistic, intentional, and faithful as you engage in the lives of today’s teenagers.

Mark Oestreicher is a veteran youth worker and founding partner in The Youth Cartel, providing resources, training, and coaching for church youth workers. The author of dozens of books, including Youth Ministry 3.0, Mark is a sought-after speaker, writer, and consultant.

As for Me and My Crazy House: Learning to Protect Your Heart, Marriage, and Family from the Demands of Youth Ministry

Serving in Christian ministry should be a life-building, life-giving, life-inspiring experience for leaders, spouses, and families. So why isn’t that always the case?

In As for Me and My Crazy House, youth pastor Brian Berry pours out his thoughts on why it’s so tough to build a healthy life, a healthy marriage, and a healthy family in the mist of ministry craziness. He focuses on the following three best gifts you, as a youth worker, can bestow:

The best gift you can give your marriage is a healthy self

The best gift you can give your family is a healthy marriage

The best gift you can give your community and ministry is a healthy family

Just reading this book won’t transform you into a youth worker with a healthy self, marriage, and family. But reading this book will guide you, challenge you, and inspire you as you ponder the stuff that we all wrestle with as followers of Jesus, the stuff we strive for as spouses, and the stuff we yearn for as parents.

Brian Berry serves as the generation ministries pastor at Journey Community Church near San Diego, California, where he works directly with high school ministry and oversees a staff that is responsible for infants through 20-year-olds. Brian is also a frequent blogger, writes and teaches for youth workers, and speaks at various conferences, camps, and retreats for a variety of audiences.

Maybe you’ve asked that question because you’re tired of the relentless, nagging voice in your head saying you should quit, or you’re inadequate, or your shortcomings are what people will remember most about you. Perhaps you’re simply discouraged, frustrated, burned out, or isolated because of the criticism you’ve endured.

This book is for you.

After nearly 20 years as a pastor, Brian Berry has come to the conclusion that we can’t escape the critics, but we can learn how to think through and respond to them in healthy ways. Put another way: criticism isn’t something you solve, it’s something you manage.

Drawing from his own experiences, Brian will guide you through the painful but necessary journey we face in life. He’ll examine why criticism hurts and discuss specific methods and strategies for handling it, including those times when critical words reveal insight and truth from God.

When you face criticism, the best response isn’t to hide, run away, or quit. The answer is to search your soul, pick yourself back up, and determine how you can deal with, respond to, and learn from the critics.

Brian Berry serves as the generation ministries pastor at Journey Community Church near San Diego, California, where he works directly with high school ministry and oversees a staff that is responsible for infants through 20-year-olds. Brian is also a frequent blogger, writes and teaches for youth workers, and speaks at various conferences, camps, and retreats for a variety of audiences.

Ministering to Gay Teenagers: A Guide for Youth Workers

When it comes to ministering to gays and lesbians, far too many churches have chosen silence over service or a reactive stance over proactive involvement. But congregations must abandon their comfort zone and minister to a group of people who need to experience the love of Jesus like never before.

With truths drawn from his own personal experiences, youth pastor Shawn Harrison seeks to equip youth workers in ministering to gay teenagers, their families, and the gay community at-large. The church must not compromise truth, he says, but it shouldn’t withhold grace either. How gay students first encounter God—personally and communally—and how Christians react to them can determine their subsequent steps.

Ministering to Gay Teenagers is filled with wisdom and practical advice on how to respond when a student comes out and how to help the teenager’s family through that journey. This book will equip you with solid answers to the questions parents ask and it will challenge you, your youth ministry, and your church to consider how you can practically minister and serve a group of people who seek deep authenticity in love, character, truth, and presence.

Shawn Harrison is the founder of Six:11 Ministries, an online ministry resource that exists to proclaim God’s identity and wholeness. He specializes in training youth workers and church leaders in ministering to the gay community and working with gay teens and their families.

More than Dodgeball: Where Youth Ministry is More than Entertainment

Youth ministry is more than entertaining games, more than memorable trips, more than late-night gatherings, and more than pizza parties.

Or as veteran youth worker Joshua Griffin puts it, youth ministry is More Than Dodgeball. This book is filled with insights on what it takes to build and sustain a vibrant youth group where teenagers’ lives are changed and their hearts are drawn closer to Jesus Christ.

Griffin focuses his attention on four main themes: the heart and calling of the youth worker, the leadership of a student ministry, the volunteer team that serves teenagers, and big-picture ideas about healthy ministry. These aren’t just random thoughts, they’re practical words of wisdom rooted in his 15 years of experience as a youth pastor.

More Than Dodgeball will encourage, inspire, and drive you toward the realization that your youth group can be more than a source of entertainment. It can be a vibrant ministry that intentionally, significantly, and permanently impacts the lives of teenagers.

Joshua Griffin is the high school pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

No Teenager Left Behind: 10 Hard-to-Handle Teenagers and How to Break through with Them

No one ever said ministering to teenagers was easy. But working with certain teenagers seems especially challenging, difficult, and stressful.

How can you best connect with defiant, clingy, or complacent students? How do you build bridges to unchurched, hurting, or socially awkward teenagers? Drawing on two decades of youth ministry experience, Leneita Fix offers practical insights and strategies on effectively connecting with 10 groups of teenagers that we can overlook, ignore, or avoid all too easily.

In No Teenager Left Behind, Fix paints a picture of students who can fall through the cracks of our youth ministries, a picture rooted in her own teenage struggle with insecurities and doubt and low self-esteem. These are the students that we pretend we are too busy for. They’re the ones that are lost and we feel totally unqualified to reach.

But what they need is to be loved. Instead of avoiding these teenagers, we can see them as Jesus sees each of them. And we can commit to the vision of leaving no teenager behind as we minister to this generation.

Leneita Fix has been involved in Bible-based program direction for children ages 5–18, curriculum writing, staff training and recruiting, discipleship, and speaking to national audiences. Her passion is multiplying all youth workers by aiding them to become better trained and equipped.

Small Groups from Start to Finish

According to Doug Fields, the number one question people ask him is: “How do I start an effective small group program?” This resource is his answer. Everything Doug and his ministry partner Matt McGill know about launching small groups has been put into this resource.

Small Groups from Start to Finish walks you through 10 clear steps on how to launch a healthy small group program within your youth ministry.

Doug Fields has been a pastor to teenagers and a mentor to youth workers for over 30 years. He’s the author of more than 50 youth ministry books.

The $5 Youth Ministry: Low-Cost Ideas for Effective Ministry

It seems like no matter how good the economy is, there’s never enough money in the youth budget. That’s why $5 Youth Ministry is packed cover-to-cover with effective, easy-to-implement ideas that all cost about $5 or less. This book goes beyond just icebreakers and games—every page is written to help build and grow relational youth ministry.

The 9 Best Practices for Youth Ministry

In The 9 Best Practices for Youth Ministry, Kurt Johnston and Tim Levert unwrap nine characteristics of effective youth ministry. They specifically tackle this vital question: “What can churches and youth groups do to keep students from walking away from church after high school?”

This book takes an up-close look at some “best practices” discovered in an extensive study led by leaders from seven different denominations. Researchers surveyed more than 6,000 lead pastors, youth pastors, paid and volunteer youth workers, parents, and teenagers who have found success in creating ministry settings that foster long-term Christ-followers, not just youth group attendees—and they found some solid, real-world answers.

This isn’t a textbook, it’s a practical guide for anyone who works with teenagers in a local church setting. If you’re committed to effective, real-world youth ministry, this book will help you build, lead, and support the cause of helping teenagers own their faith and maintain that faith once they graduate from high school.

Kurt Johnston has been in youth ministry since 1988 and currently leads the student ministry team at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California.

Tim Levert has been working with students since 1992. He earned a PhD in youth ministry and pastored a missional church in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. Tim is currently the youth pastor at Reynoldsburg United Methodist Church in metro Columbus, Ohio.

The Disconnect

Every time you walk out of your senior pastor’s office, do you leave with a sense of bewilderment and confusion? “Did I just waste the last hour? Did he really hear what’s going on with our students? Is youth ministry really a priority?” If so, you aren’t alone.

When it works, the relationship between a youth pastor and senior pastor opens the door to dynamic ministry in the local church. But when that relationship is weak, damaged, or broken, it can create an environment that breeds frustration, dissension, and burnout.

And in far too many churches, that relationship is weak, damaged, or broken. Trust, respect, and sacrifice don’t happen when you aren’t on the same page. Doug writes directly to youth pastors, offering his encouragement and wisdom.

In The Disconnect, Doug Franklin and the team at LeaderTreks tackle the challenge of restoring that relationship. It is a unique resource that brings together youth pastors and senior pastors for honest dialogue on the tough task of working together.

If you’re on the verge of a breakdown or ready to quit because you just can’t take anymore, you’ll want to read this book. Your working relationship might still be restorable. And if it isn’t, you can absorb and apply these truths in future ministry settings.

If you and your senior pastor already communicate and work together well, this book will help you solidify that relationship. You can take something good and make it great.

The Disconnect includes both Bridging the Senior Pastor and Youth Pastor Gap and Bridging the Youth Pastor and Senior Pastor Gap.

Doug Franklin is the president of LeaderTreks, an innovative leadership development organization focusing on students and youth workers.

Youth ministry is one of the most rewarding professions in the world. But it also can be exhausting, overwhelming, captivating, tedious, energizing, demanding, draining, and stressful. Can you handle the pressure?

Mark DeVries and Jeff Dunn-Rankin want you to succeed—whether you’re trying to land your first youth ministry role, wishing you had more love for the job you already hold, or seeking strategies to lock in your dream job.

That’s why they’ve written The Indispensable Youth Pastor: to peel back the curtain and reveal the truths about youth ministry. They want you to understand and prepare for the unique challenges that accompany this calling. Otherwise, you’re likely to be blindsided and overwhelmed by situations that a well-prepared youth worker will handle with ease.

This book provides tools that will help you stay in the game of youth ministry for as long as God has called you and insights that can literally transform the way you approach your next (or current) role.

Don’t become a statistic—another person who leaves youth ministry prematurely, burned out from ministry and the church altogether. Make yourself indispensable by following the path toward landing, loving, and locking in your dream youth ministry job.

Mark DeVries is the founder of Youth Ministry Architects, a consulting team specializing in working with youth ministries in transition. Since 1986, he has served as the associate pastor for youth and their families at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Mark is the author of Sustainable Youth Ministry and Family-Based Youth Ministry.

Jeff Dunn-Rankin is the vice-president of consulting for Youth Ministry Architects. Since the late 1990s, he has also been the director of youth at Christ United Methodist Church in Venice, Florida. Other writing projects include his GROUP Magazine column and co-writing Before You Hire a Youth Pastor, with Mark DeVries.

Across the country, volunteer ranks continue to grow, but people are volunteering differently. They’re working online, seeking flexible schedules, and pursuing a role in defining how projects should be completed. They want to feel a sense of responsibility for your organization’s overall mission.

Put simply, these volunteers don’t want to simply make a contribution; they want to make a difference.

Jonathan McKee and Thomas McKee have tapped into their decades of experience with the simple goal of helping you recruit, manage, and lead the new breed of volunteers. They’ll guide you to a clearer understanding of what today’s volunteers look like, how they want to get involved, and how you can most effectively attract, train, and unleash them within your organization.

In The New Breed, you’ll discover a bounty of helpful resources to assist you, including job descriptions, applications, interview questions, activities, icebreakers, team-builders for volunteer meetings, community-building activities, and tips for board retreats and planning sessions.

The 21st century calls for a new system and for a greatly expanded definition of what it means to be a volunteer. If you can harness this passion and potential, you’ll experience results that will reward both your organization and your volunteers.

Jonathan McKee, president of The Source for Youth Ministry, is the author of numerous books including Candid Confessions of an Imperfect Parent, Connect: Real Relationships in a World of Isolation, and Do They Run When They See You Coming? Jonathan speaks and trains at conferences, churches, and events across North America.

Thomas W. McKee is the president and owner of Volunteer Power, a leadership development firm specializing in volunteerism. He has over 45 years of experience in volunteer leadership and has trained over 100,000 leaders on how to manage the chaos of change in an organization. His books include They Don’t Play My Music Anymore. Tom is a keynote speaker at conferences and events round the world and provides training resources for directors of volunteers.

The Volunteer’s Back Pocket Guide to Sex: Guiding Teenagers on Issues from Pornography to Purity

Teenagers live in a sex-saturated world. And for many of them, sex has become a purely physical act, fully divorced from spirituality, love, and commitment. Sex, pornography, and “hooking up” are all met with the same response: “It’s no big deal.”

Too many of our students don’t know where to turn to learn about sex, leaving many feeling confused, fearful, and alone. Teenagers who struggle with sexual addiction or unhealthy patterns don’t know how to find freedom and healing from the choices they’ve made, and they’re afraid the church will label them as perverts if they’re open and honest about their deepest struggles.

But amidst these sobering realities, there is good news: Youth workers are on the front lines of the battle to shape, challenge, and encourage teenagers toward sexual wholeness and purity. The Volunteer’s Back Pocket Guide to Sex will help you as you aid students in navigating a path that honestly addresses all the challenges they might face, while honoring God along the way.

Authors Craig Gross and Cris Clapp Logan don’t sugarcoat the realities and they don’t hold back in tackling the toughest topics, including pornography, sexuality, masturbation, and purity. Using God’s truth as the foundation for the conversation, they’ll equip you with practical information and powerful strategies to help you become a volunteer youth worker who helps teenagers live wisely and walk in freedom.

Craig Gross has rightly earned a reputation for boldly and courageously helping people to discover the truth about pornagraphy and to pursue paths toward freedom, accountability, and personal integrity. He’s the founder of XXXchurch.com, which provides practical and spiritual solutions to pornography issues to millions of visitors each year.

Cris Clapp Logan is an internet safety expert, artist, speaker, and writer. She works with corporate and technology leaders, speaks nationally to parents and youth organizations about pornography, sexuality, and youth online identity, and contributes regularly on national radio, TV, and print publications. Cris has volunteered with youth-serving organizations for over a decade.

Two Sides: Finding What Fits Your Youth Ministry

Imagine a world where everything in youth ministry is black-or-white, where simple solutions are always evident, and where one size truly fits all.

Here’s the reality of youth ministry: Gray often is the dominant color, differing opinions abound, and the way forward isn’t always clear or certain. But just like a wise sage, Two Sides will help you through the journey of discovering the right and best answers for your ministry.

You’ll gain insights from veteran youth workers who have wrestled with these debatable gray areas. For example, should we write our own curriculum or used pre-written material? Should small groups be separated by gender or combined into co-ed groups? Should I be accountable for regular office hours or follow an adaptable schedule because of youth ministry’s crazy hours?

In these and other areas, no answer is right or wrong—the “correct” answer is the one that best fits your specific setting. This book will engage you in considering both sides of the matter, thinking through some important questions, and then determining your own side of the issue.

Darren Sutton has served in youth ministry for over 20 years. He has a passion for students and the adults who influence them. Darren and his wife, Katie, co-founded Millennial Influence and produce a weekly podcast reaching parents of teenagers. They currently serve a student ministry in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Youth Ministry Life: A Daily Dialogue about Things that Matter

The most solid youth workers are the ones eager to learn, hungry for wisdom, and excited to discover new truths and rediscover old ones.

With that in mind, we’ve handpicked some of the best, deepest, and richest content from our Simply Youth Ministry Today emails and created Youth Ministry Life. This book will help you navigate four major areas of ministry for every youth worker:

The philosophy of youth ministry—why we do what we do and what difference it is making for God’s kingdom

The people in youth ministry—those we are serving and those who are serving alongside us

The practice of youth ministry—programming for the most effective reach

The personal aspect of youth ministry—how and why we need to grow and strive for personal and spiritual health as the point people of our ministries

The writers of Simply Youth Ministry Today understand the joys and challenges of youth ministry because they’re right there, serving in the trenches. Youth Ministry Life will engage you in the dialogue about things that matter to you, your students, your ministry, and your church.

Kurt Johnston has been in youth ministry since 1988 and currently leads the student ministry team at Saddleback Church in Orange County, California.

Joshua Griffin is the high school pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.